This document provides an overview of gender roles and definitions for a sociology course. It introduces key concepts like sex, gender, and the sociological imagination. Sex refers to biological characteristics, while gender involves social and cultural performance of masculine and feminine roles. The document also defines intersex, transgender, and discusses how gender structures society at both the micro and macro levels. Students are asked to consider how they view gender and its influence on individuals and institutions for their term project.

1. Gender Roles in Society
Sociology 235
Professor: Erica Dixon

2. My note to you:
• I hope you develop or further enhance
your “sociological imagination”
• C. Wright Mills coined this term, and by it
he meant:
– We are able to see the relationship between
ourselves and society
– We have the ability to see how we are shaped
by the historical time period we live in as well
as how we shape history

3. In regards to GENDER
• The Sociological Imagination will allow
you to explore the multi-faceted
dimensions of being male or female in our
society

4. Multi-faceted…
• Biological
• Cultural
• Psychological
• Social Construction
• Institutions (Work, School, Family)
• Relationships
• Bodies
• What else do you want to learn? You will have a
term project to complete – consider picking
something new and innovative!

5. Basic Definitions:
• SEX :
• A social status usually based on genital
appearance.
• Persons may be
female, male, intersexed, or
hermaphodrite – now referred to as DSD
(Disorders of Sex Development)

6. Definitions, cont.
• GENDER:
• A social status usually based on the
performance of feminine or masculine
roles.*
• Persons may be women or girls, boys or
men, or transgendered.
• *culturally relative!

7. Definitions, cont.
• INTERSEXED or HERMAPHRODITE (DSD)
A social status assigned to persons having sex
characteristics of both females and males.
• TRANSGENDERED
Transgendered persons feel that they do not fit well as
either women or men. They may feel themselves to be
neither gender, to be both genders, or to be a gender
other than what their sex would normally dictate.
Persons may be transgendered on the basis of only their
feelings about themselves, they may appear
ambiguously gendered to others, or they may change
their gender and live unnoticed as another gender.

8. The centrality of Sex and Gender
• Micro Level = Gender is often a Master
Status
• Macro Level = How social life &
institutions are organized around sex and
gender

9. The two basic questions your
text asks and seeks to answer:
• Why does virtually every society
differentiate on the basis of gender
(sex)?
• Why is virtually every society based
on male dominance?

10. Video: Is it a boy or a girl?
Introduce you to:
• Intersexual = Hermaphrodite (DSD)
• Intersection of biology & culture
• Cultural Comparisons
• Ethics
• Research
• Personal Stories
• Politics
• Gender continuum

11. Due Monday: June 29th, 5pm
• 1. Post a biography.
• 2. Post a sentence or paragraph, with
page reference, that stood out to you
from Chapter 1.
• In one or two paragraphs explain to your
classmates why it is meaningful to you.
• Be prepared and open to further discuss
your and others meaningful sections.